Restaurant Voice Apps

Restaurant Voice Apps

Is your business on Alexa? While your business may come up from the search engine (Bing for Alexa), the information the customer will receive is the information listed on that search engines.

We are living in an era where technologies are evolving at a stunning pace. Imagine your customers getting instant access to booking a table (without a fee to a third party ) or hearing what your chef’s specials are for that day. Thanks to our partners at Webology, now all you have to do is ask Alexa!

Restaurant Voice Apps are voice-enabled apps that allow customers to book reservations, RSVP for events, book parties, and listen to daily specials, directly through their Alexa or Google Home smart speaker.

For a limited time, our clients can receive $400 off the activation fee by using code FIRSTSERVED2019

Learn More/See Pricing

Google + (plus) Shutdown Scheduled For April 2019

Google + (plus) Shutdown Scheduled For April 2019

Google is shutting down its struggling social network sooner than expected in the wake of a new security issue that affected over 50 million users.

In early October, the company revealed that a security bug had exposed the account information of 500,000 users, including their names, email addresses and work information. At that time, Google planned to shut down Google Plus by August 2019.

Google recently announced another bug that allowed the profile information of 52.5 million users to be viewable by developers, even if the profiles were set to private, using one of Google’s application programming interfaces, or APIs, for six days in November. Once again, the available data included information like users’ names, email addresses, occupations and ages. With growing user concerns, Google decided to shut down early.

If your website has links pointing to Google Plus, now is the time to begin removing them.  When it comes to SEO, many people are still concerned about the consequences of Google+ shut down on the visibility of their website. This is highly unlikely.  Unless you have a website that solely relies on Google+ to promote your site and connect with the audience this shutdown should not affect you or your business.

Why is Social Media Important?

Why is Social Media Important?

Customers and Relationships

Regardless of what industry your company is in social media is important because your customers/clients  are using social media. Websites are important but your online presence needs to go further than that.   Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even Pintrest are what people are using for not only their searches but also their reviews. Many customers respond to ads, photos, deals and announcements but more importantly, if you have good content and interesting topics you gain followers.

Image and Brand

People talk. If a customer/client is unhappy about a product or service, they take to social media.  This is your opportunity to respond immediately.  . We monitor your company on social media and can respond to their concerns or notify you so that you can respond.   We focus on highlighting the positive aspects of what your company has to offer and respond sincerely to negative reviews or remarks.  In addition, we will ask for feedback and encourage your customers to post their positive experiences.

Web Traffic and SEO

Social media can increase the volume of traffic visiting your website, this is important in search engine ranking. Oftentimes, the items being shared on social media are what drives traffic to your site. Well-placed social media posts can make all the difference.

Why Do Restaurants  Need Social Media?

Why Do Restaurants Need Social Media?

If you are an entrepreneur owning a restaurant/hotel and looking to upscale your business, social media must be on top of your mind. This is because you are living in the digital age and social media is all over the place; it will be staying for many more years, at least until something new and more advanced takes over.

Social media: Importance

Customer engagement

People tend to share pictures of their favorite eatery on Facebook or Instagram as soon as they enter the place. As a restaurant owner you can make it simple by being proactive. Engage your customers through social channels and improve customer experiences. Remember; your hotel ambience, service quality, food- everything will be shared. So aim to sell experiences, not just your best dishes.

Enhanced trust and loyalty

When you encourage your customers to share their experiences online, you are actually demonstrating transparency. This makes people trust you. Moreover if there is an occasional negative review, it will be ignored considering your choice of publishing the same. You become credible and earn more loyal customers.

Brand advocacy

Your customers that share their experiences online are your restaurant’s advocates. Empower such customers and align your strategies to add to and intensify their messages.

Embrace social media and grow your business in style!

Lawsuit Filed Against Groupon

Lawsuit Filed Against Groupon

PRESS RELEASE

FOR RELEASE: FOR INFORMATION:
Valorem Law Group 312-676-5480
June 27, 2018 847-644-3003

On June 26, 2018, Corporate Tailgate Services Inc., dba Chicago Boat Rentals (“CBR”), 1177 North Elston Avenue, Chicago, filed a lawsuit against Chicago-based company GROUPON, Inc. (“Groupon”), alleging that Groupon had defrauded CBR. The Complaint alleges that Groupon used a fraudulent refund scheme in which it issued itself hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of “refund credits” for purported refunds that were in fact never refunded to customers. The Complaint alleges that “Groupon presented the fabricated and false ‘refunds’ as legitimate refunds actually given to purchasers, but in fact many of the refunds were fabricated by Groupon and not given to purchasers. The fabricated refunds that Groupon identified to CBR simply resulted in money that rightly belonged to CBR being kept by Groupon itself.”

The Complaint outlines the approximately 5-year relationship that CBR had with Groupon, in which Groupon sold discounted Groupon Vouchers to CBR’s boat rental services. 20% of the money Groupon collected from customers went to Groupon as a “service fee” under the parties’ agreement, and 80% was supposed to have gone to CBR for providing boat rentals at discounted prices to Groupon customers. The Complaint notes that for many sales, the sales proceeds were correctly divided 20%-80%. For many other sales, however, the Complaint alleges, Groupon fabricated that it had given refunds to customers and then deducted the amounts of those purported refunds from money that it rightly owed to CBR. The Complaint outlines one example where the customer purchased the Groupon Voucher in April, redeemed the voucher to rent one of CBR’s boats in July, only to have Groupon later assert that this customer had been refunded in April, on the same day as his purchase, and withholding CBR’s share of the customer’s purchase price from CBR. The Complaint alleges that the customer never received any refund.

Describing the scheme as both “complex and difficult to uncover,” the Complaint also alleges that Groupon took specific steps to cover up the scheme when CBR brought it to Groupon’s attention in August 2017, and then again in October 2017, including Groupon removing certain questionable names and redemption numbers from Groupon’s “Dashboard,” an online location where Groupon merchants may check the then-current status of specific Groupon vouchers, customers, and/or redemption numbers.

CBR’s Complaint seeks approximately $350,000 and $700,000 in punitive damages against Groupon, as well as attorneys’ fees, costs, pre-judgment interest, and post-judgment interest.
CBR’s outside legal counsel, Stuart Chanen, of Valorem Law Group, will hold a press conference to answer questions on the lawsuit on Thursday morning, at 9:30 a.m., at 218 N. Jefferson Street, Chicago, IL, Suite 300.